Current concepts in examination and treatment of elbow tendon injury.

Context: Injuries to the tendons of the elbow occur frequently in the overhead athlete, creating a significant loss of function and dilemma to sports medicine professionals. A detailed review of the anatomy, etiology, and pathophysiology of tendon injury coupled with comprehensive evaluation and treatment information is needed for clinicians to optimally design treatment programs for rehabilitation and prevention.

Evidence Acquisitions: The PubMed database was searched in January 2012 for English-language articles pertaining to elbow tendon injury.

Nirschl surgical technique for concomitant lateral and medial elbow tendinosis: a retrospective review of 53 elbows with a mean follow-up of 11.7 years.

Background: Combined lateral elbow tendinosis (tennis elbow) and medial elbow tendinosis (golfer's elbow) can be a disabling condition that, if unresponsive to nonoperative treatments, may be effectively treated surgically. The authors are not aware of any study that reports the outcome of a combined operation for lateral and medial elbow tendinosis (country club elbow) performed in the same operative setting.

Hypothesis: Combined surgical treatment of country club elbow in the same operative setting has similar outcomes to those seen in the literature for single operative procedures.

Ten- to 14-year follow-up of the Nirschl surgical technique for lateral epicondylitis.

Background: Good to excellent short-term results have been reported for the surgical treatment of lateral epicondylitis using various surgical techniques.

Hypothesis: Surgical treatment for lateral epicondylitis using the mini-open Nirschl surgical technique will lead to durable results at long-term follow-up.

Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.